A _retort_ is a short, sharp reply, such as turns back censure or
derision, or as springs from anger. A _repartee_ is an immediate and
witty reply, perhaps to a remark of similar character which it is intended
to surpass in cleverness.
_Sentences_: The detailed ____ to our letter should reach us within a
week. The plays of Oscar Wilde abound in brilliant ____. The speaker's
____ to the heckler was incisive and scathing. My ____ to that third
question in the examination in history was incorrect. The congregation
read the ____ in unison. You have enumerated objections to my course; here
is their ____. "This is no ____, thou unfeeling man. To excuse the current
of thy cruelty." There was silence throughout the chamber as the old
statesman rose to make his ____. To the tenderfoot's remark the guide
mumbled an indifferent ____. Our appeal for the sufferers elicited but a
poor ____.
catechize, request, beg, solicit, entreat, beseech, crave, implore,
supplicate, importune, petition.>
From the general tree of asking grow many branches, different in size, in
the direction they take, in the shades of meaning they cast.
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